His Vipers might just be the most running, gunning team pro basketball has ever seen. ESPN stat guru Kevin Pelton has described their style of play as "the most extreme professional basketball in America," and their pace is historically fast: At 109 possessions per game, the Vipers play far faster than any NBA team in the past two decades, including Mike D'Antoni's Seven Seconds or Less Suns, who averaged around 98 possessions per game. The NBA has sped up since then, with the league average now at 96.5, but even this yearâÂÂs fastest team, the Philadelphia 76ers, at 102.6 possessions per game, are tortoises compared with RGV.

The Vipers also fire an unprecedented barrage of 3s, taking nearly half their shots from behind the line and averaging 45 3-point attempts per game. The Rockets, who lead the NBA in 3-point attempts, shoot only 26 per game, good for about a third of their shots.

When they aren't bombing 3s, Smith's Vipers shoot almost exclusively close to the rim: 41 percent of their field goal attempts come within five feet of the basket. That means, combined, 88.1 percent of the Vipers' shots are 3s or short 2s. They've scored a whopping 3 percent of their points this year from midrange. When Smith's players warm up, they don't bother shooting inside the 3-point line, except for maybe a few bunnies in the paint.

• Clippers Sixth Man Jamal Crawford is having quite a month of February, one good enough for a Western Conference Player of the Month award, writes Jeff Caplan of NBA.com:

Even better: With Crawford on the floor in February, the Clippers' offensive rating (points per 100 possessions) soars to 121.6 and when he sits it drops to 102.6 – a 19-point cliff dive.

Crawford's explosion helps explain the Clippers' rise as the No. 1 offense in the league this month, boasting an offensive rating of 115.1 and averaging 113.9 ppg, even with Chris Paul reintegrating himself into the lineup and playing only six of the 10 games. L.A.âÂÂs playing quicker, getting in transition more and the Thunder win was a shining example with 27 of its 34 fastbreak points coming in a 72-point first half.

The Kings drafted Fredette with the 10th pick in 2011 after a sensational run at BYU, where he won The Associated Press' player of the year award his senior season. Fredette never lived up to the fanfare in Sacramento, though the franchise's instability -- playing for three different coaches and two different ownership groups -- didn't help his cause.

Fredette is averaging 5.9 points and 11.3 minutes this season, shooting 47.5 percent from the floor and 49.3 percent from 3-point range. For his career, he's averaging seven points, 1.5 assists and 1.1 rebounds while shooting 41.6 percent overall, including 40 percent from beyond the arc.

Fredette's time in California's capital city has been nearing an end since the Kings decided not to pick up a team option before this season on his contract for the 2014-15 season. Sacramento also tried to move Fredette before last week's trade deadline but couldn't get any takers.

The Thunder's starting center sustained the injury early in the third quarter of last Thursday's home loss to Miami.

Should he miss the entire six weeks, Perkins would be sidelined until approximately April 9, when the Thunder plays a road game against Sacramento. He would miss 20 games.

The team is expected to be extremely cautious with Perkins and allow him the most time possible to recover. The goal is to have Perkins healed in time for the playoffs.

The Thunder recently took a similar approach with starting point guard Russell Westbrook, who missed 27 games after chronic swelling in his surgically-repaired right knee required a third surgery in late December. But groin injuries are notorious for lingering and becoming worse if not handled properly.

• Philadelphia 76ers point guard Michael Carter-Williams, who looked like one of the frontrunners for Rookie of the Year earlier this season, appears to be hitting the rookie wall, writes Michael Kaskey-Blomain of Philly.com:

Rather, along with Thaddeus Young, Carter-Williams has been the most important, and productive Sixer this season, and therefore a focus of opposing defenses. But, while some of his struggles as a rookie can be explained, they can't be completely ignored.

While his point production has stayed steady, his rebounding, assist, and steal numbers, three areas that really stuck out as special for Carter-Williams early on, have dipped, as has his true shooting percentage, which hasn't been over 50% since December.

For the month of February, Carter-Williams is averaging only 4.1 rebounds (6.7%) per game; his lowest output of any month this season. His assist average has followed the same trend, and dipped to a season low 4.8 average for the month. Equally as concerning as the decline in the assist area is the rise in turnovers. Carter-Williams is averaging the exact same amount of turnovers per game this month (4.8), as he is assists. This leaves him with an assist to turnover ratio of 1.00 for the month, or in other words, not very good. Carter-Williams had taken relatively decent care of the ball early on in the season, especially considering how often he had it in his hands. He is 25th overall in the entire NBA in total touches, and he never averaged over 3.8 turnovers a game in any month prior to February.